Harry Ferguson Research Limited was a British company founded by Harry Ferguson who was mostly known as "the father of the modern farm tractor". He was also a pioneer aviator, becoming one of the first to build and fly his own aeroplane in Ireland, and also went on to develop four-wheel drive systems for cars including pioneering their use in Formula One racing cars. The company was based in Siskin Drive, in Coventry, England.
British Racing Motors (BRM) was a British Formula One motor racing team. Founded in 1945 and based in the market town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, it participated from 1951 to 1977, competing in 197 grands prix and winning seventeen. BRM won the constructors' title in 1962 when its driver Graham Hill became world champion. In 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1971, BRM came second in the constructors' competition.
The 1959 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Aintree Circuit on 18 July 1959. It was race 5 of 9 in the 1959 World Championship of Drivers and race 4 of 8 in the 1959 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. It was the 14th British Grand Prix and the third to be held at the Aintree Motor Racing Circuit, a circuit mapped out in the grounds of the Aintree Racecourse horse racing venue. The race was held over 75 laps of the four kilometre circuit for a race distance of 362 kilometres.
Pedro Rodríguez de la Vega was a Mexican sports car and Grand Prix motor racing driver. He was the older brother of Ricardo Rodríguez. Both brothers started racing at an early age, first on motorbikes and then moving to cars. Following his brother's death in a racing accident in 1962, Pedro briefly considered retiring from racing, but decided to carry on.
Joseph Siffert was a Swiss racing driver.
Reginald Parnell was a racing driver and team manager from Derby, England. He participated in seven Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, achieving one podium, and scoring a total of nine championship points.
British Racing Partnership (BRP) was a racing team, and latterly constructor, from the United Kingdom. It was established by Alfred Moss and Ken Gregory – Stirling Moss's father and former manager, respectively – in 1957 to run cars for Stirling, when not under contract with other firms, along with other up-and-coming drivers.
David Hepworth was a British racing driver, who won the British Hill Climb Championship twice, in 1969 and 1971. In the early-mid 1960s Hepworth drove an Austin-Healey 3000 fitted with a Chevrolet engine in both rallies and circuit racing, but by 1968 he was driving a Hepworth-Oldsmobile; in this he won a Formula Libre race at Croft late in that season.
Formula One sponsorship liveries have been used since the 1968 season, replacing national colours. Major sponsors such as BP, Shell, and Firestone had pulled out of the sport ahead of the season, prompting the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile to allow unrestricted sponsorship. At the 1968 South African Grand Prix, South African privateer team Team Gunston became the first Formula One team to implement sponsorship brands as a livery when they entered a private Brabham car painted in the colours of Gunston cigarettes for John Love. In the next race, the 1968 Spanish Grand Prix, Team Lotus became the first works team to follow this example, with Graham Hill's Lotus 49B entered in the red, gold and white colors of Imperial Tobacco's Gold Leaf brand. With rising costs in Formula One, sponsors becoming more important and thus liveries reflected the teams' sponsors.
Four-wheel drive (4WD) has only been tried a handful of times in Formula One. In the World Championship era since 1950, only eight such cars are known to have been built.
The BRM P67 was an experimental Formula One car, designed by Tony Rudd and built by the British Racing Motors team in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England, for the 1964 Formula One season.
The BRM P261, also known as the BRM P61 Mark II, is a Formula One motor racing car, designed and built by the British Racing Motors team in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. The BRM P261 was introduced for the 1964 Formula One season, and its design was an evolution of Tony Rudd's one-off BRM P61 car of 1963. The P261 had a relatively long racing career; variants of the car were still being entered for Formula One World Championship Grands Prix as late as 1968. During the course of their front-line career BRM P261s won six World Championship races, in the hands of works drivers Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart, and finished second in both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championship standings in 1964 and 1965. Stewart, Hill and Richard Attwood also used works P261s to compete in the Tasman Series in 1966. The BRMs dominated, with Stewart winning four, Hill two, and Attwood one of the 1966 Tasman Series' eight races. Stewart also won the title. The works-backed Reg Parnell Racing team returned in 1967 with Stewart and Attwood, where Stewart added another two wins to his tally. In terms of races won and total Championship points scored, the P261 was the most successful car in BRM's history.
The BRM P207 was a Formula One racing car, designed by Len Terry and constructed by British Racing Motors, which raced in the 1977 Formula One season. It was powered by a 3.0-litre V12 engine, with a claimed output of 488bhp. London-based Swiss watchmakers Rotary Watches provided sponsorship money. The car failed to score any points during the season. The team made a total of nine entries during the season, but only qualified in one instance, at the 1977 Brazilian Grand Prix. Driven by Larry Perkins, the car retired on lap one due to overheating. Its qualifying time was six seconds slower than that of the second-to-last starter. One British journalist in Brazil exclaimed that he was ashamed of being British. The car failed to appear at the season opening Argentine Grand Prix because it was too wide to fit in the hold of the aircraft that was going to transport it to South America.
The BRM P139 was a Formula One racing car designed by Alec Osborn, based on the original P126/133/138 design by Len Terry, which raced during the 1969 and 1970 seasons. It was powered by a 3.0-litre V12 engine. The car was uncompetitive, which resulted in team boss Tony Rudd being asked to resign, with his position being taken over by Tony Southgate, Tim Parnell and Aubrey Woods. After the team did not attend the French Grand Prix, a redesigned P139 appeared at the British Grand Prix, with a roomier, more bulbous cockpit and additional strengthening, giving the P139 a cylindrical appearance. The revised car was barely an improvement on the original P139, and was replaced by the P153 for the 1970 season. The P139 made one final appearance, at the 1970 South African Grand Prix, driven by George Eaton, who was effectively paying for his drive, and thus did not receive a 'works' P153.
Tony Southgate is a British engineer and former racing car designer. He designed many successful cars, including Jaguar's Le Mans-winning XJR-9, and cars for almost every type of circuit racing. He was responsible for the chassis design of Ford's RS200 Group B rally car. Southgate was employed as chief designer or technical director for many Formula One teams for over twenty years. These teams included BRM, Shadow and Arrows. Southgate retired after producing the Audi R8C, which was a major influence in the Bentley Speed 8, which won Le Mans in 2003. He continues to be a regular visitor to current and historic race meetings.
The 19th International Gold Cup was a non-championship Formula One race, which was held on the Oulton Park circuit, located near Tarporley, Cheshire, England on 29 May 1972.
The BRM P115 was a Formula 1 racing car built by British Racing Motors in 1967.
The Cooper T86 was a Formula One racing car built by Cooper and first raced in 1967. B and C specification cars were also built to accommodate different engines, but the car could not revive Cooper's fortunes and this type represents the last Formula One chassis built and raced by the former champion team.
Mike Pilbeam is a British motorsport designer and engineer known for his work with BRM, Lotus, Surtees and his own company, Pilbeam Racing Designs. An early design was the experimental four wheel drive Formula One BRM P67 of 1964. As of 2014, Pilbeam's company continued to produce hillclimb cars and sports prototype chassis for endurance racing.
The British Racing Motors V8 was a four-stroke, naturally aspirated, 1.5 L (92 cu in), V-8 racing engine, designed, developed and built by British Racing Motors (BRM) to compete in Formula One racing (although an enlarged 2.0 L version was used for sports car racing. It was built between 1962 and 1967, and came in two version; the P56, and the P60.
Neil Bettridge [1]